As The Clock Ticks
by zodiark4321
Summary: He was your normal teen. All he ever wanted was to be left alone but the world is cruel. Shadows watch him as he tries to wade through the constant turmoil of high school, never knowing the secrets that lurk in every dark corner. As the Biggest, Most Atrocious Despair-Inducing Incident in Human History ebbs closer, will he simply fall into despair? or will he.. (Despair Arc AU)


_Author's Note at the end._

 **Disclaimer:**

 **All the OC's in this story are mine. All other characters are rightfully owned by the Spike Chunsoft Co.**

* * *

 _He sips the last of his orange juice in a hurry, savoring the sweet and tangy taste before jumping off his chair, a spring in his step as he made his way to his mother._

 _Misaki Fujiwara sits back on her haunches as she extends her arms toward her approaching son, enveloping him in her warmth once Taika is within reach. "Well if my boy isn't just a ball of sunshine today," she says in between sweet little kisses showered all over Taika's small, youthful face._

 _If it were even possible, Taika feels his face split into an even bigger grin. "Are you excited, Taki?" she asks once she gets back on her feet, letting go of little Taika with one last hug and a peck on the top of his head. He nods, still wearing the smile that never fails to cause his mom's heart to flutter with love for her only son: her precious little Taika._

" _Come on, Daddy's waiting for us," She says to him in a gentle tone as she held his hand and feels his tiny fingers clasp onto her palm. His steps continuously spring with energy as he walks with his mom side by side._

A solid staircase step against the front of Taika's worn-down Chucks causes him to stumble and return his consciousness to where his physical self-has been for the past half hour. His head jerks up to see the dulled metal railing at the side, and he fumbles to grip the cold surface with equally cold fingers.

"Sorry," the boy mutters, a shoddy excuse for not paying attention to the teacher who was showing him around the campus.

He nearly trips. Again.

' _Pay attention, Taika. You'll regret not listening to this guy when you're looking for your next hiding spot.'_

"Hey kid, are you okay?" a hand settles on Taika's shoulder, and it would be comforting if he intimately knew this guy, but he didn't, so the action results in the opposite of the desired effect.

Taika directs a nod to the other, and he almost thinks the old man would've missed it if he weren't currently scandalizing Taika with the deep, I-can-see-into-your-soul kind of stare the other was giving him.

"It's fine, really," he raises his hands in assurance, presenting a smile that is less than genuine to the kind old man. Taika internally cringes at the sorry state of affairs he was in, and quietly hopes that this man will soon shift his attention to the others and leave him be with his personal space.

The thumping in his chest begins to quicken as he lets out an awkward, forced laugh. It isn't long before he regrets his choice of action.

The man nods in approval, albeit with a doubtful smile, before returning to address the others. Feeling a wave of relief swarm through his system, his stiff shoulders sag down just so, tense muscles relaxing. He breathes a soft sigh, turning to his thoughts.

' _Thank God that's over. Magnificent timing, as always, Mr. Traumatic-Flashbacks.'_

He rattles his head, desperately trying to come up with an answer, until he gives up and instead releases the ongoing war in his mind. Finally deciding to admit defeat at giving a decent answer, he shifts his gaze to the group, ready to move along.

That is, of course, before he realized that his group had already advanced a good few feet ahead.

 _Shit_ is all that makes it out from his chapped lips as he breaks into a half-run to catch up.

* * *

Seconds drag on into minutes (that feel more like _hours_ , to be truthful) until the tour finally comes to an end, clusters of students brought to the double-doors of their classroom.

Their guide directs them to enter the spacious hall, made less impressive by the mundaneness of plain wooden armchairs, arranged into rows from end to end; a large desk is situated front and center, lonesome but imposing, nonetheless.

The hectic atmosphere is gone, replaced by a calmer, quieter ambiance enveloped by the afternoon light streaming in from the windows.

Taika tentatively searches for a desk to find recluse in before settling on the second to the last desk from the back, which was closest to the window and a decent distance away from the teacher. He tries to look as nonchalant as possible as he walks over and takes a seat, feeling the nibbling ache in his legs (which he'd had to endure for the entire length of the tour) dissipate. A breath of relief escapes his dry throat as he settles himself on his seat.

He sees some of the others from the tour also doing the same. The screech of metal sliding across the tiled floor and inaudible murmurs and giggles of other students break the nearly comforting, therapeutic silence of the room as more nameless faces trickle in and take their spots.

' _Marking their territory',_ pipes Taika's mind.

He senses agitation slowly starting to beset him, but he'd be damned if he paid any mind to it.

Once everyone is finally seated, a slow, nearly ominous creak is heard from the general direction of the double-doors before a tall, lanky man wearing a well-fitting black suit enters, an aura of subtle confidence and certainty surrounding him. Taika trains his eyes on him as the man slowly walks to the teacher's desk.

The man takes his position in front, overlooking the entire class.

A cough, before a monotonous voice emanates the room in a clipped, unenthusiastic manner:

"Good morning to you all, let me introduce myself as Akihito Amano but you will address me as Mr. Amano, your Homeroom adviser for the rest of the year. I trust that you all know what you're here for?"

His eyes almost seem lifeless as he takes in the confused mutters and nods of assent from the class.

' _I can already feel my brain turning into static.'_

Seeing this to be as entertaining as watching paint dry, his eyes wander around the room in disinterest while the incessant lecture of his teacher enters through one ear and leaves the other just as fast.

His gaze first lands on his classmates; he sees most of them have already passed out on their desks. His mouth slowly curves into a smile before a snigger comes along as well.

"And what, pray tell, is so amusing about all this, Mr. I'm-too-good-for-Homeroom?"

Taika feels a pair of eyes on him, the heat coming from the front of the room, followed by the unmistakable discomfort of feeling approximately a hundred eyes staring in his direction.

If it had been any other moment of his life that Taika was living out as of now, blushing would have been no problem, but that wasn't the case. Blood began to rush to his face, leaving his face a color akin to that of a beetroot. No one could have _possibly_ missed that.

"I-uhh... I-I'm sorry, sir," he stutters in a low voice. Embarrassing, yes, but considering his situation at the moment, he hardly had any other option. However, that still didn't subtract the fact that this memory would be seared into his brain for the next three years or so, and he could imagine the scene popping up and tormenting him at random points of everyday life.

Mr. Amano grunts before turning back to the class to continue his lecture. _This guy doesn't stop, doesn't he?_ Taika shuffles back in his seat before settling his gaze to his teacher still rambling in front.

 _Of course, he'd see you sniggering in the background, you dolt_.

Great. He had tried with great effort not to be noticed only to have the exact opposite outcome go splitty splat right in his face. He gives a sigh of defeat before turning his ears to Mr. Amano.

"Okay class, now that the introductory phase is over with, I would like each and every one of you to come up to the front and introduce yourself to the class."

It's just one thing after another, isn't it? He's slowly coming to the conclusion that lady luck is really fucking with him today. Honestly, he _should've_ seen this coming. It was his first day.

Taika had to actively suppress a groan; introducing himself to a room full of people who he'd end up avoiding for the rest of the year was never his favorite part, and the fact that they already probably thought of him as some sort of delinquent made it even worse.

' _The sooner you get it over with, the sooner you can begin avoiding the rest of them,'_ the very same thought he always used to console himself during self-introductions at every new school his family decided to enroll him in.

' _You're just delaying the inevitable, Taika.'_

The owlish eyes of everybody in the room watching him made Taika hyper-aware of this fact. Gingerly, he pushed himself out of the chair and began making his way to the front of the room.

He takes a brief glance at his teacher as he walks forward; he was giving him the stink eye. To say that that didn't unnerve Taika even a little would be a lie, but he chooses to push it out of his mind as he continues to his spot up front.

He trains his eyes forward, drinking in the gazes of his ever-vigilant peers. His pulse begins to quicken a little as he readies his introduction for the class.

Taika clears his throat, hands clammy with sweat. _'Ah, fuck it.'_

"H-hello, My name's Taika Fujiwara. It's nice to meet you all," he announces in a shaky yet modest tone of voice before dropping his upper body into a short bow. He raises himself and breaks his legs into a near race-walk to his seat. He spares no quick peeps to his peers as he arrives at his seat and shuffles hurriedly back into his chair.

A few more self-introductions follow after him, but Taika doesn't even attempt at a show of any effort to remember the names. He simply rests his head on his palm, waiting as the unenthusiastic introductions of his classmates continue to fall on deaf ears.

It's always like this with him; the routine of going the extra mile to avoid social interaction is almost second nature to him, sometimes to the point of even impressing himself. Whenever he does have the will to strike up a conversation (which, in itself, is a rarity all on its own), the topic either floats towards school or, God forbid, the weather in which he would start to stare out into blank space due to boredom.

Taika tends to see people as an assortment of whatever in a mixed bag. He could either enjoy the company no matter how brief or plan his path to escape from an absurdly asinine conversation. He always dances with his introversion to a song that continuously shifts from love to hate.

 _When did my life become so angst-ridden? I guess it comes with the job of being me,_ he muses.

Breaking away from his thoughts, Taika hears the light tapping of leather against tiled floors. He jerks his head upward, turning his gaze to a young man already walking away from the front of the room. He eyes him for a bit, watching as said young man settles in the seat of the desk behind Taika's. The young man slowly shifts his eyes to the window with an expression as blank as cardboard.

Being the ever-curious George Taika was, he followed suit. Outside, the sun sat on top of the canopies of most trees, spreading warm orange light throughout the vicinity. Aside from the abundance of trees, the only man-made structure sat quietly at the center of it all. To the rest of the students here, it was a lofty goal; a goal worth putting all their hopes into, however in Taika's eyes, it was a school that prides itself over its own perfectionism.

' _Hope's Peak Academy in all its self-obsessed glory,'_ Taika's face slowly molds itself into a grimace in wry displeasure as he visage continues to gaze at the main building.

The entire goal of the academy is the gathering of only the most elite of the elite into its halls. The young ladies and gents who are at the very top of their respected fields were the only ones the academy sought after in an attempt to research into the capabilities of these individuals, well… not until the Reserve Course popped up.

Though Taika may not be a model student, he sure isn't ignorant enough to see that their only purpose here was to be assigned the roles of _Cash Dispensers_. As if the absurdly high tuition fees weren't enough, they dangle the chance to get into the Main Course in front of the hungry eyes of the students here like a treat in front of a starving dog but rarely do they give.

' _A school of hope that capitalizes and preys on the hopes of the normies, ain't irony a bitch huh?'_.

Ambivalence slowly creeps and crumples Taika's visage. Finding humor in the irony yet he drowns in the false hopes of his peers. He shakes the thoughts out of his mind, feeling them dissipate in his cognition before a huff upfront grabs his attention.

With a few grunts to clear his throat, Mr. Amano settles his eyes onto the visages of his students.

"Well, we're done with the orientation for the day. _However,_ I expect you all to be on your best behavior tomorrow", He announces in a voice that's as thick as a wall, as he keeps his blank eyes trained on his students. "Now, dismissed!".

Amano's voice echoes throughout the room. Silence bubbles up for a short second before bursting in a haze of murmurs and the oh-so grating noise of metal running across tiled floors. As steps continued to pound, Taika blocks out the noise, morphing it into a gentle hum and resigns it to the back of his head (much to his joy), before taking a glance back at the building.

Taika then tenses his legs for a bit. Stretching them, feeling refreshing energy run through his stiff muscles, before bounding up quickly and placing the sling of his bag on his right shoulder before breaking into a near racewalk as he aimed for the door out.

' _Thank God! FREEDOM!'_ , shouts Taika's thoughts.

Nearing the exit way, something grabs at Taika's awareness. On the reflection of the window of the door to their room still sat the young man that he'd notice just a while ago. He looks back and sees him still there in his seat, quietly yet sternly looking out with his gaze falling directly on the main course building. Focusing on it on with steely eyes akin to a lion stalking its prey.

 _He must really want to get into the main course,_ His mind muses and then he gives a quiet sigh. Yet another one with a false hope to get into the main course but he quickly shrugs it off. His curiosity had its limits and prodding into other people's worlds is too much of a hassle so he let himself out of the room without any further interruptions.

* * *

The light rustling of leaves dominates his hearing as Taika's steps continue to tap on the pavement beneath him. His eyes dart around the general vicinity, taking in the absence of the multitudes of people who he usually notices every time he walks down the same street and only leaving him with a handful of individual pedestrians.

Nice. All the individual stresses that he had to deal with begins to leach out from his overly exhausted system as his steps began to feel lighter. His inner introversion flared in slight joy as he continued his way down the seemingly empty street, relishing at the fact that he didn't need to deal with any god-forsaken crowds.

A short gust of wind ruffles Taika's ash brown hair and loosens up his tightly worn scarf. He grabs onto it, not wanting his only piece of inconspicuous fashion (even though it does the complete opposite at times) to be swept away by the wind. He steadies his feet firmly on the ground as he straightens his torso against the wall of air.

 _BUMP-_

A shot of a thick aching sensation suddenly ran through his forehead and into the rest of his body. It was a blunt pain, akin to hitting a wall. To Taika, the world rushes by in a blur as he feels his feet leave the pavement.

Shit. It goes by quick yet slow, almost nearing suspension. Then impact. Taika winces as his tailbone makes contact with the rough floor, as a sharp and aching twinge run through his lower abdomen. He rubs his head softly, trying to alleviate the blunt pain that was still residing on his forehead.

First, the stairs at school and now this. It just keeps coming and coming; he's starting to believe that misery might have a thing for him.

After shaking his head for a bit to regain his sight, his eyes settle on what exactly caused him to tumble down on his ass, and it somewhat scrunched up his face in blank confusion.

"Owowowowowow…that hurts."

He hears a soft whimper from what he can definitely tell is a girl. The girl is flat on her butt, just as Taika is, and a number of notebooks surround her. He sees a head of reddish-brown hair braided into a neat fishtail, leading down to a torso clad in a brown blazer, with a white shirt underneath.

 _Is she….from the main course_? Taika asks himself. He had seen the students there but has never really examined what they wore. He looks to the side to see a sling bag and sees the Hope's Peak Symbol on it.

Oh great, the girl he just bumped into _had to be_ from the main course as well.

"Oh, fudge!" At the girl's sudden squeak, Taika flinches. She focuses on him with hazelnut eyes and cheeks stained cherry-red. _She's kind of cute,_ his brain muses. Blood rushes to Taika's cheeks as he hurries to bury his face into the fabric of his scarf.

She hastily picks herself up (albeit, a bit shakily), dusting off her skirt in the process, before making her way to the boy on the ground. "I'm so so, so, so, _so_ sorry," she babbles as she offers a hand to Taika, her face still painted with a tinge of red.

His lips curl as his eyes fixate blankly at her face before a surging blast of realization barrels down his thoughts. _Crap! Goddamnit Taika, you're staring at her too long. Great! She must think you're a huge fucking perv by now!_

With a non-effective gulp to sway his embarrassment, he offers a smile to the girl; not out of kindness, but to hide the fact that he looked stupid on the pavement (though it didn't help that much, to be truthful).

"I-it's nothing, heh," his mind throws itself against the walls of his skull as the words escape his lips. _What the hell was that laugh?! Goddamnit, get it together Taika!_

Wanting to get off the dust-ridden pavement, he takes the girl's empty hand. She pulls him up without a fuss, and the pain in his lower half begins to lessen a bit.

Taika takes the time to scrub the dust off of his clothes, feeling marginally better after getting up from the pavement. "Again, I'm very, very sorry," she looks at him with eyes of amber before doing a short curtsy.

Taika recoils as blood flushes to his cheeks, _again_. He should probably do something. Anything. _Gah._

"It's fine." With that, he gives another less than genuine smile followed by another uncomfortable and tense laugh, this time slathered with awkwardness. A few moments seem to drag on before the girl breaks the silence once more.

"Oh, fudge! My notebooks!"

She turns her head quickly, seemingly horrified at the sorry state of her bag and notes that littered the sidewalk before she starts to pick up her things.

Taika contemplates momentarily whether he should just leave or not; _it would_ rid him of the embarrassing situation he was in…

No. He isn't a dick. Sure, he has a lot of people in his life who are dicks, but surely he isn't. At least he hopes so. _Just go and help her, simple as that._

He takes the few steps toward the girl and begins to assist her in retrieving the notebooks. "Oh, you really don't need to," she flashes Taika a sort of goofy (and utterly ridiculous) smile while holding her palms up.

"Nah, it's partly my fault for not looking as well," he chats as he slides a few more notebooks back into her bag. She relents, a look of what seems to be curiosity (as far as Taika was aware) on her face, before giving him another grin. "Thanks," she tells him.

"Here you go, that's the last one," Taika smiles as he hands her the last notebook. It had taken a while for them to completely fix up, but at least the job had been done. He readies himself to walk where he was originally headed until-

"Hey, a question? If you don't mind," drawing Taika's attention, the girl looks at him with her head slightly tilting. Is she examining him? A glint of worry starts to stir within him before he pushes it back down: no need to worry, he can't be that ugly (right?).

A hum escapes her lips before she speaks. "I've been wondering for a while but, are you a student here?" queried the girl. Taika was taken aback a little. _She must've seen the symbol on my sling bag_ , he reasoned.

"Yeah, I'm- I'm a student of the Reserve Course," Taika chokes out. Great, now she knows. She probably would just ignore an 'underling' like him, and even t _hat_ would be the best-case scenario if there was no mocking and snorting included. Taika prepares himself for the worst; coming from a main course student, it would be-

"WAIT! REALLY!?"

…..Ugggghhhhhhh. Taika expected a more…negative response. What he didn't expect was a girl, who he had bumped into, by the way, to be centimeters away from his face, soft hands around his, and stars in her eyes. Yep, today was officially the weirdest first day of school he has ever been to.

* * *

You know those types of stories where you absolutely need to write so you can finally get it out of your head? This is one of them. It is also my first fanfiction (which I take pride in after two weeks of debating whether I should finally post this or if I should throw myself out of a window because my writing skills are shit). This will follow the main plot of Despair Arc however there will be a couple of changes along the way.

I will try to upload this bi-weekly (as long as my grades don't straight up murder me) so bare with me. Until next time!


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